Body of prime suspect in 30-year-old murder case exhumed

Detectives have admitted that the new prime suspect in one of Britain’s
longest miscarriage of justice cases confessed in 1983 to the murder of Teresa
De Simone but he was ignored and the wrong man spent quarter of a century in
jail.

Sean Hodgson walking free from the Court of Appeal in MarchPhoto: GETTY

By Nick Allen and Caroline Gammell

5:04PM BST 12 Aug 2009

The new suspect, who is believed to have raped and murdered the barmaid in Southampton in 1979, committed suicide nine years after that.

His body was finally exhumed at Kingston Cemetery, Portsmouth so that his DNA can be conclusively matched to samples from the crime scene. Police refused to reveal his identity.

It is understood the exhumation was ordered after DNA from semen found on the victim was established as a partial match for a sample on the national database. That sample belonged to a sibling of the new suspect.

The man wrongly convicted of the crime, Sean Hodgson, went to jail in 1982 but was freed by the Court of Appeal in March this year after new DNA tests showed he was innocent.

He was the victim of one of the longest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history and is eligible for £1 million compensation.

After being told of the exhumation of a new suspect Mr Hodgson, 59, who is in a respite home, said by telephone: “It can only lead to closure for the victim’s families and for me.”

The new suspect was one of seven people who had made confessions after Mr Hodgson was jailed. He was never arrested.

Mr Hodgson’s lawyer, Julian Young, said the confessions had been “vital information” which could have freed his client much earlier and he was shocked police had not acted on it or passed it on.

Mr Young said: “If it is true these confessions were not followed up by police or passed on to Mr Hodgson’s legal team then, or to me as part of the appeal, it is surprising and very disappointing.

“This may raise serious questions about the way in which the police then operated and their failure or unwillingness to disclose evidence. I did not know seven people made admissions. It would have been highly relevant evidence.

“It may well be that it was in a filing cabinet somewhere and no one had put two and two together. But it should have been done.”

The body of Miss de Simone, 22, was found in her Ford Escort parked at the rear of the Tom Tackle pub. She had been raped and strangled and her jewellery stolen.

Mr Hodgson confessed to the killing at the time but later denied the charge and his defence team explained that he was a pathological liar.

Detectives said the new suspect was a young man at the time and did not come from Southampton.

He did not know Mr Hodgson and they believe it was a stranger killing and the man killed himself because of his guilt.

Miss de Simone’s mother Mary Sedotti, 77, said: “In a way it’s hard knowing that he is not here to answer or explain. But then at the same time I think that what he did shows he must have had a conscience. He must have been very troubled.”

Hampshire Police said the breakthrough in the case was only possible because of advances in forensic science and tests on the body will take six weeks.

A file on the dead suspect could then be submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Regular visitors to the cemetery in Portsmouth said the grave of the suspect had no headstone and was untended.

“It may well be that the record of the confession was in a filing cabinet somewhere and no one had put two and two together. But it should have been done.”